Of the last-named mountains that of Monserrat is the most famous, for suspended upon one of its flanks hang the remains of the celebrated monastery in which Loyola deposited his sword. Monserrat has lost its prestige as a holy place, but still remains one of the most interesting subjects for the study of {432} geologists. It consists of conglomerate, and has been worn by atmospheric agencies into innumerable pillars, pinnacles, and earth pyramids surmounted by huge boulders. Hermitages and the ruins of castles abound, and the prospect from the highest summit extends from the Pyrenees to the Balearic Isles.
Crossing the valleys of the Llobregat and Ter, we reach the swampy plain of Ampurdan, an old gulf of the sea, and with it the north-eastern extremity of Spain, separated from France by the Albères Mountains. The surrounding hills abound in the remains of ecclesiastical buildings. One of these, near Cabo de Creus, the easternmost promontory of Spain, and the Aphrodision of the ancients, marks the site of a temple of Venus.
The basin of the Ebro forms a huge triangle, the mountains of Catalonia being the base, whilst its apex lies in the hills of Cantabria, close to the Atlantic. The surrounding hills differ much in height, but the nucleus of all consists of granite, upon which have been deposited sedimentary strata, the silent witnesses of the gradual filling up of the old inland lake. The river itself traverses the very centre of this triangle, at right angles to the Mediterranean, and only when it reaches the mountain barrier separating it from the sea does it wind about in search of an outlet.
The Fontibre, or “fountain of the Ebro,” gives birth at once to a considerable stream, which, fed by the snows of the Peña Labra, rushes with great impetuosity past Reinosa (2,687 feet), then passes through a succession of defiles, and finally, having received the Ega and Aragon with the Argo from the north, emerges from Navarra a great river. Below Tudela (800 feet) it is large enough to feed two canals, viz. that of Tauste, which carries fertility into the once-sterile tracts at the foot of Bardenas, and the navigable Imperial Canal, which follows the valley down to Zaragoza. The ordinary volume of the latter amounts to no less than 494 cubic feet per second, but much of this water is sucked up by the calcareous soil.
The tributary rivers which enter the Ebro in the plains of Aragon compensate for the loss sustained through canals of irrigation. The Jalon, Huerva, Martin, and Guadalupe join on the right; the Arba, Gallego, and Segre on the left. This last is the most important of all, for it drains the whole of the Pyrenean slope from Mont Perdu to the Carlitte.
The Ebro, after its junction with the Segre, immediately plunges into the coast ranges of Catalonia, and though the fall thence to the sea amounts to 183 feet in 95 miles, no rapids or cataracts are met with. The suspended matter brought down by the river has been deposited in the shape of a delta which juts out fifteen miles into the Mediterranean, covers an area of 150 square miles, and abounds in salt marshes, lagoons, and dead river arms. A canal, twenty-two miles in length, connects the harbour of refuge at Alfaques with the Ebro, but is not available for ships of great draught, owing to the bar which closes its mouth. The other embouchures of the river are likewise closed by bars.
The volume of the Ebro[154] decreases annually, on account of the increasing {433} quantities of water which it is called upon to furnish for purposes of irrigation, and sooner or later it will be reduced to the condition of the rivers of Valencia.
The productiveness of the irrigated fields of Aragon and Catalonia bears witness to the fertility of the soil. Even saline tracts have been converted into gardens. Tropical plants, agaves, cacti, and a few feathery palms on the coast to the south of Barcelona recall the beautiful landscapes of Southern Spain. The valley of the Ebro holds an intermediate position between Murcia and Valencia and the bleak plateau and mountains of the interior; but water, except in the immediate neighbourhood of the rivers, is nowhere abundant. On some of the hill-tops may be seen houses the walls of which are dyed red, because it was found more economical to mix the mortar with wine than to convey thither water for that purpose. This deficiency of moisture is a great drawback to certain districts in the lower valley of the Ebro. The greater portion of Bárdenas, the Monegros, and the terraces of Calanda are treeless steppes. Cold and heat alternate abruptly, without reference to seasons, and the climate, in spite of the proximity of the sea, is quite continental in its character. The hot winds, so much dreaded on the coast of Catalonia, do not blow from Africa, but from the parched plains of Aragon.
The climate of Catalonia, owing to the breezes blowing from the Mediterranean, is far more equable than that of Aragon, and to this circumstance, no less than to differences of race and greater facilities for commerce, this province is indebted for its distinct individuality.[155]
Catalonia, being open to invasions from the sea as well as by land, has a much more mixed population than its neighbour Aragon. On the other hand, a conqueror once in possession of the latter had but little to fear expulsion at the hands of new-comers, and the Moors maintained themselves in Aragon three hundred years after they had been expelled from Barcelona.